Fun and Games Dept

Mr. Snowman., originally uploaded by iMachias.

We purchased Mr. Snowman in 2003 shortly after we moved into this house. He has seen some pretty tough winters over the years, having spent one entire winter up to his nose in a snowbank. Earl and I did some reassembly last year, hooking all his important parts back together with wire-ties. Towards the end of last season his middle section went dark; perhaps he drank too much Slim-Fast or something. I did some rewiring today and got him all lit up again, and now he is shining brightly in the front lawn, surrounded by the dancing candy canes and the waving snow flakes on a stick. He welcomes all to the holiday season at The Manor.

Great Sacandaga River., originally uploaded by iMachias.

Earl and I enjoyed the day in the north country on Friday. Now many folks think of New York as the Big Apple and many in the Big Apple think of the North Country as Yonkers, but when I’m referring to the North Country I’m referring to the part of New York State between the Adirondacks and the Canadian border.

It is my absolutely favorite part of the state.

We hadn’t been on a drive of this nature in a long while so it was good to sit in the Jeep and exploring the little towns that dot US Route 9 and US Route 11. We ate at locally owned establishments, picked up a cell phone charger at a _thriving_ K-mart that even still had it’s Little Caesars Pizza Station AND a K-mart cafeteria and we drove along a road where the ditch was Canadian but the blacktop was American. The cows mooed and munched in French.

All in all it was a very relaxing day.

To get where we wanted to go we drove through the Adirondacks. We stopped along Route 8 in the Town of Wells for a few moments in the woods; I snapped a few photos of the Great Sacandaga River. That’s the photo at the top of this entry.

The folks in the North Country seem to be nicer and more relaxed than further downstate. People refer to it as a “snowy Alabama”. I’d like to refer to it as home someday.

I am witting in my usual parking space for my lunch hour. The difference today is that in the next spot over is a horse and buggy. The folks that drove it in went to McDonalds. I would share a photo of this horse and buggy but the camera app on my Droid has crashed twice and refuses to speak to Twitter today. I’ll post it once I get home and I can hack into the phone.

I find it ironic that I am complaining about technology whilst parked next to a horse and buggy driven by an Amish couple.

The horse just dumped. So did the Droid. Otherwise he is well behaved and just standing there, pooping occasionally.

The buggy has a sturdy build and has a couple of blankets in the passenger area. I like that, blankets in the car. I do the same thing. If my name was Linus I might have a safety blanket in my stash, but alas, I do not.

I am fascinated by the fact that I am parked next to this horse and buggy. I’m not surprised, after all the town I grew up in has hitching posts at all the major fast food establishments. But it is fascinating.

I apologise that the previous blog entry was posted in triplicate and that I was completely unaware of it. One of the new features of the latest version of the WordPress app on the iPad is that it automatically posts things, deletes things, calls you names and then posts some more before it spitefully crashes into oblivion in a last effort of frivolity.

I once loved the app. I now hate it.

I was just standing in line at The World’s Greatest Subway(tm) where I heard a woman remark to her friend that it was very dark out this morning when her alarm went off. I refrained from making a comment and a spectacle, however, had I decided to verbalize the thoughts that starting circling in my head, I would have said this:

“It’s because we screw with the clocks and our heads, you idiot.”

You see, we are still in Daylight Saving Time here in the United States and will continue to be for the next three weeks or so. Isn’t that comforting? For the next three weeks we won’t see daylight on the east coast until after 0700. So while you’re trying to get your act together for the day, you get to stumble around in the dark and fumble for your keys and go out into a dark morning for your daily commute. You see, even though you’re turning on the lights and all that for a longer amount of time, the U.S. Government says that burning our lights longer is saving energy. That’s right, we are saving energy by illuminating darkness every morning. But don’t worry, at least everyone gets to still enjoy their outdoor activities after work. You know, before it gets dark at 1830 (6:30 p.m.). Enjoy your swim in Lake Ontario as you watch the beautiful sunset.

To say that I hate Daylight Saving Time gives it too much credit, because it would imply that I once loved it. I despise Daylight Saving Time with every fiber of my jet-lagged, lethargic being. Earl and I have been tossing around the idea of relocating a few miles to the west and I’m joyful because the clock will be .02 seconds closer to true time during DST.

Most humans are designed to awake with the dawn’s early light, not an hour before sunrise. So in the name of Old Glory, please stop trying to compete with nature and stop messing with the clocks.

I shall spend the next three weeks or so making like a zombie that has flown from Shanghai to Bangor with a 10 hour layover in Peoria. Twice. Please be kind.

I was just standing in line at The World’s Greatest Subway(tm) where I heard a woman remark to her friend that it was very dark out this morning when her alarm went off. I refrained from making a comment and a spectacle, however, had I decided to verbalize the thoughts that starting circling in my head, I would have said this:

“It’s because we screw with the clocks and our heads, you idiot.”

You see, we are still in Daylight Saving Time here in the United States and will continue to be for the next three weeks or so. Isn’t that comforting? For the next three weeks we won’t see daylight on the east coast until after 0700. So while you’re trying to get your act together for the day, you get to stumble around in the dark and fumble for your keys and go out into a dark morning for your daily commute. You see, even though you’re turning on the lights and all that for a longer amount of time, the U.S. Government says that burning our lights longer is saving energy. That’s right, we are saving energy by illuminating darkness every morning. But don’t worry, at least everyone gets to still enjoy their outdoor activities after work. You know, before it gets dark at 1830 (6:30 p.m.). Enjoy your swim in Lake Ontario as you watch the beautiful sunset. 

To say that I hate Daylight Saving Time gives it too much credit, because it would imply that I once loved it. I despise Daylight Saving Time with every fiber of my jet-lagged, lethargic being. Earl and I have been tossing around the idea of relocating a few miles to the west and I’m joyful because the clock will be .02 seconds closer to true time during DST. 

Most humans are designed to awake with the dawn’s early light, not an hour before sunrise. So in the name of Old Glory, please stop trying to compete with nature and stop messing with the clocks. 

I shall spend the next three weeks or so as a zombie who just flew from Shanghai to Bangor via a 10 hour layover in Peoria. Twice.  

Show your support of LGBT teens that are struggling by wearing purple today, if you’re not already. Too many teens are committing suicide because of being bullied simply for being different. Suicide is not the answer.

Remember, it gets better. I promise.

I have written this blog entry three times since the update to the WordPress app for the iPad/iPhone came out a little while ago and hopefully this version will make it to the site.

So far it’s crashed twice, my listing of posts have disappeared and other mayhem has ensued. Not quite there yet, Automattic.

So yesterday Earl and I went for one of our long rides. It’s been a couple of years since we’ve piled in the Jeep with the necessary accoutrement and hit the open road, but the weather was beautiful, the leaves were at peak and as I said before, it’s just been too long.

Selecting a route is a little bit of a trick proposition for a couple of reasons: I drive due east everyday for work and Earl drives in every direction every day for work. So we agreed that we would drive the back roads and ignore the freeways unless we got to a boring part where we had to fast forward.

First stop was in the City of Oneida, about a half hour west of us. I wanted to stop in Oneida to snap a photo of this…

I don’t know who Rob and Molly Healy are but I wish nothing but the best for them as they began their journey yesterday. Actually, the reason I wanted to snap a photo of this theatre is because in my hometown of Pulaski, New York there is another Kallet Theatre that is about the same age as this one. (Pulaski’s was built in 1935, this one was built in 1937) Kallet Theatres had a modern presence in this neck of the woods back in the day and it’s good to see this one restored to it’s former glory. The Kallet Theatre in Pulaski closed in 1982, was restored once in the late 80s and then was sold to an auto parts store where it became an auto parts store! Such a shame. I shudder to think what the inside of the theatre looks like today. Rumor has it that someone is going to buy it and restore it. If I had the money, I’d do it myself.

I found this old picture of the Pulaski Kallet Theatre on the tubes.

We then made our way across Central and Western New York on NY Route 31, which roughly follows the Erie Canal across the state. Our next stop was the B’ville Diner in Baldwinsville, New York, which is really close to some family we didn’t see because we were on a mission. I was going to take a picture of the diner but to good a good shot you have to stand in the middle of the street.

We continued the trek west until we got to the outskirts of Rochester, where we made a necessary stop at the Eastview Mall. They have lovely bathrooms and more importantly, an Apple store. The MacBook Pro needed a new battery and the iPad needed a better case so in we went, where we posted for a photo on one of the display 13-inch MacBook Pros.

The MacBook Pro works much better when it has a viable battery, by the way.

We tried to follow NY Route 31 all the way across Rochester, but there are signs missing in the downtown area and we got off the path a little bit, but it was quickly realised and we were back on track and heading west. Our next stop was Medina. We wanted to see this little canal village for various reasons. The downtown is trying to make a comeback and it looks like they’re making good strides. The center of downtown Medina is 43.2 miles from Downtown Buffalo and 43.1 miles from Downtown Rochester, in case you were wondering.

While on the outskirts of Medina we decided we wanted to do a little more shopping.

Unfortunately Ames closed in 2002 and there is plenty of evidence that it is missed in Upstate New York, because there are closed Ames stores (or Ameses as Grandma City called it) in many small towns up here. Usually the closed Ames is the anchor to a shopping center that is completely closed as well. So sad. Wal*mart came in and couldn’t be bothered to use up existing land, they needed to move further out and disrupt more of the countryside. Bleh.

From Medina we continued on Route 31 to Lockport where we finally made our way into Buffalo. We met up with Jamie and friends for a few moments (he’s in Buffalo for the weekend) and then did some exploring around the waterfront and downtown areas. It was getting dark so I wasn’t able to take any quality shots, but it’s amazing what Buffalo is trying to do by taking some of the abandoned warehouse buildings and turning them into lofts. There are also some good attempts and making the waterfront more attractive to people and less industrial like and I think that’s a great thing.

From Buffalo we drove through Lackawanna and down towards the small village of Springville before heading back across NY Route 39, which is my second-favorite route to drive next to NY Route 177, simply because it goes through open meadows, relatively flat land and lots of farm land before bringing us back into the Finger Lakes. By now it was 9:00 p.m. and our gut decided one more meal wouldn’t be a bad thing, so it was a quick stop at the Denny’s in Canandaigua before heading home across 5 & 20 to Syracuse and then to The Manor.

All in all it was a great day. Earl and I have had an adventure like this in a long while and it’s a grand feeling to know that the two of us after all these years enjoy each others company, laugh about silly things, discuss our bright future together and still find comfort in each others presence.